1.Election precinct designation - Laserfiche WebLink

December 1, 2003 Page 2 I am recommending the precincts currently located at Hunter, Grandin, and Gardner be combined at the Northern Cass School District building on County Road 26 (about 6 miles west of Gardner). This would have the three cities and six townships voting at this one location. We had a total of 452 people vote from these three precincts in the last General Election. Grandin and Hunter were combined at this location before and it generated a lot of protests from Grandin; however, with the increased cost of equipment and elections in general, this combination simply makes sense. The distance from Hunter, Grandin, and Gardner to the polling site would be 8 miles, 13 miles, and 7 miles respectively. I have contacted Hal Habermann, Superintendent of the Northern Cass School District, who indicated that the school district could accommodate the polling site. The next consolidation I am recommending is the precincts at Arthur (22-02) and Amenia (22-05). I recommend these be combined with the polling location at Arthur. Arthur is 7 miles north of Amenia. The combined voters at these two precincts in the 2002 General Election was 388. This will still be a small precinct in numbers of voters, but it will encompass two cities and six townships. Precincts located at Tower City, Buffalo, and Alice could be combined at Buffalo. The reason Buffalo was chosen as the site for the polling place is that normal travel seems to be east toward Fargo and north toward 1-94 making Buffalo more convenient than either Tower City or Alice for the majority of voters. In this new combined precinct 608 voters participated in the 2002 General Election. The precinct would encompass 10 townships and 3 cities. Precincts presently located at Kindred (22-13) and Davenport (22-12) could be combined at either Kindred or Davenport. In the 2002 General Election, the combined precinct would have had 626 voters. My recommendation would be to combine these two precincts at Kindred since Kindred and Normanna Township have the largest percentage of voters (378 of the 626). Davenport Township, directly west of Kindred, has another 64 voters. The new precinct would encompass two cities and four townships. Probably as important as making a recommendation on where to consolidate precincts, is to explain why I didn't recommend consolidation of some other precincts, particularly in the rural area. Precinct 22-01 and 20-01 cannot be consolidated because they are in different legislative districts. We can however co-locate the precincts in Page and use one set of election equipment for both election boards. Precinct 22-06 (Argusville) is a small precinct encompassing the City of Argusville, Berlin Township and the part of Harwood Township that lies in District 22. The precinct to the north is in District 20, and the precinct to the south is District 45. Therefore, Arthur or Mapleton would be the closest place to consolidate, but neither is in the normal traffic pat'tern for the people living in this precinct. The precinct could be co- located with the Harwood precinct (45-06) and use one set of election equipment for the two election boards. Precinct 22-09 is a very small precinct north of West Fargo that includes part of West Fargo, Fargo, and Reed Township. It is not practical to consolidate this precinct but I will recommend it be co-located with one of the West Fargo precincts--again using one set of election equipment with two election boards. Precinct 22-14 (Eagle Run) is also is a small precinct; however, with the growth in that area and the changing city boundaries combining it at this time is not recommended--it will be interesting to see this next election cycle how many voters we have in that area.